Monte Bello Open Space Preserve: Highs and lows

Published 3:06 pm, Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Hikers might see black-tailed deer, or less frequently a bobcat or coyote, on the ridgelines.

Hikers might see black-tailed deer, or less frequently a bobcat or coyote, on the ridgelines.

Photo: Katie Meek, The Chronicle

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Monte Bello Open Space Preserve

Monte Bello Open Space Preserve

Monte Bello Open Space Preserve: Highs and lows

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Black Mountain in the Santa Cruz Mountains rises to 2,812 feet, the highest point on the Monte Bello ridge. You can reach the summit through the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve near Palo Alto. ("Monte Bello" means "beautiful mountain" in Italian.) Stevens Creek originates in the preserve, eventually flowing into the bay. The San Andreas Fault also runs through here.

At one time, the land was filled with dairy farms that supplied milk to San Francisco and the Peninsula, with one large farm located near what is now the preserve's parking lot on Page Mill Road. Cattle grazed on the mountain's slopes. In the '70s, when the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District acquired the property, a commune called the Land lived here, growing its own food and engaging in crafts such as stained glass making and woodworking.

A steep 6-mile round-trip hike takes you to the summit, where you can look out over the Santa Clara Valley with the Mount Hamilton range in the distance. The Stevens Creek Nature Trail, a less-strenuous hike, offers a 3-mile loop that provides a little bit of everything: canyons, shady forest, creekside ambience, picturesque bridges, sunny grasslands and rolling hills.

The trail descends 450 feet into the Stevens Creek headwaters and returns along the San Andreas Fault. Interpretive stops along the way inform you about the forest and its diverse plant and animal communities.

No dogs are permitted in the preserve. Wear layers, as it is often jacket weather in the cool forest but T-shirt weather on the grassy slopes. Bring water and a hat. There is a restroom at the parking lot, as well as trail maps.

Stevens Creek Nature Trail

Pick up the trail at the parking lot. You soon come to a stone bench and an overlook from where you can see the source of Stevens Creek with Mount Umunhum in the distance. (Identify the mountain by the five-story concrete radar tower, known as "the cube," sitting on top.) You can also see Loma Prieta mountain, made famous by the 1989 earthquake named after it. From the overlook, the Stevens Creek Nature Trail slopes downward into a moist, forested valley. Since the trail is a loop, you can also continue in the other direction, doing the sunny part first.

Walking along Stevens Creek, you will find ferns, bay trees, oaks and firs - and also some poison oak. Western fence lizards dart across the path. Several wooden footbridges allow you to cross the creek and its feeder streams, but at one point, you will have to cross on foot. However, unless it's the rainy season, the creek won't be very high, and judiciously placed rocks keep you from getting your feet wet.

When you come to a crossroads, bear left, following the Stevens Creek Trail sign. Now you climb away from the creek into sunny grasslands on the Canyon Trail. Enjoy the poppies, blue-eyed grass, checkerbloom and lupine. As you ascend the rolling hills, you might see black-tailed deer, or less frequently a bobcat or coyote. There have been occasional mountain lion sightings. Turkey vultures and red-tailed hawks are common overhead.

Near an informational sign, you come upon a sag pond - a depression formed along the San Andreas Fault where the crust was stretched, causing the land to sink. This sag pond was probably created in the 1906 quake. (The information sign explains "succession," a process by which one community in an ecosystem is replaced by another until a stable environment is reached.) You soon return to the stone bench and the parking lot.

If you go

Monte Bello Open Space Preserve: From S.F., head south on Interstate 280 and exit west (right) on Page Mill Road. Continue for about 7 miles to the Monte Bello parking lot on the left side of the road. Parking is also available in the Los Trancos Open Space Preserve parking lot on the opposite side of the road.

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